The Red Warrior
by ArquenRanger
Summary: Can you not sense it, Aragorn? The darkness in Mirkwood has grown thicker since we left. Something is brewing once more, and it's starting now; here in this forest. We must go! Now!


Author's Note: This is an introduction to a fic idea that popped into my head. With the help of my friend Alex I'm hoping to complete this fanfic given time. Reviews are very much appreciated because it lets me know that others are enjoying my story, which inspires me to write. Enjoy the prologue!

The Red Warrior

By: Arquen

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except the Red Warrior. Everything else (world, characters, trees, birds, etc...) belongs to the wonderful Tolkien.

Summary: When an exiled elf loses his father he dons the name the "Red Warrior" and continues his and his father's life of eliminating the evil and the corrupt of Middle Earth. When Aragorn and Legolas, on their return journey home from Rivendell, stumble upon an elven hunting party in Mirkwood's forest being attacked by a great number of orcs, the rescuers find themselves in the heat of a battle that they cannot possibly win…or so they thought.

Prologue

A strong wind swept through the forest, rustling the leafy branches with its might. A storm was coming and as if to attest to this fact a bolt of lightning flashed brilliantly across the sky, accompanied with the sound of thunder. Unfortunately, the smell of the coming rain could not mask the revolting smell of the orcs strewn across the ground.

Killing those who were evil was his life; what he had been taught to do. When he and his father came across this traveling orc party it was with a fury that they had cut them down. Those who were corrupted did not deserve to live.

The blonde elf kneeling on the ground looked down at the lifeless form of his father. Tears rolled gently down his face. The orcs had taken the only person he had grown to care for; the only person who had cared for him.

Many generations ago a group of elves had been exiled for a crime they had not committed. He had been told the tales of those days. Dark elves had still existed; corruption was not short in coming. Nevertheless, it was a tale that they had buried long ago, along with the grudge his father's family had once held against the elves that had punished them.

Together he and his father lived for the sole purpose of killing those who were evil and it was that one purpose that they had built their life upon.

Raindrops trickled down slowly, mingling with the tears upon the wood elf's face. His green eyes fixed upon his father's body, an orc scimitar protruding from his chest. Lightly he brushed his fingers upon his father's eyelids, closing the older elf's lifeless eyes forever to the world. Tears now streamed down his face. With a sudden burst of emotion he bent over his father's body and cried in anguish.

"Father!"

As if to add to the mood, the wind picked up speed; the rain beginning to come down in torrents.

Slowly he lifted his soaked body and turned his head, glaring at the orc scimitar that had dug deep into his father's chest. Unconsciously he moved his hands toward the orc weapon and yanked the putrid object from his father's body. He lifted the blade and watched as the rain washed the weapon clean of his father's blood.

On the ground a reddish puddle was now forming, surrounding the body of the dead elf. He tossed the orc scimitar aside with disdain and stared at the puddle, watching as the reddish tint gradually turned lighter with the pounding rain.

His father's existence was no more, but he would not give up their fight.

Gradually he took off his drenched cloak and bathed it in the red water.

"You are now safe from this tainted world, father. Be at peace." The wood-elf brought the bloodstained cloak out of the water and donned it once more. He turned his vibrant green eyes to the sky and for an instant he saw the sun's rays light upon him, casting an eerie glow to the red cloak he wore before it disappeared behind dark clouds.

He would continue fighting for peace; to see the world one day rid of evil.

From that day on he no longer wore the colors of the forest that surrounded him. He did not want to hide himself from evil eyes.

Let them see him approach and may they fear it, for he was the Red Warrior.


End file.
